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Are you chasing the money?

I monitor my budgeted income in the business carefully. I like to know how many months cash-flow in hand I have, and I like to know what income is due in. An essential business skill – I would say!

Last spring I decided that I had enough money in reserve that I could stop working for the summer – in fact I took three months off. I focused on me, my health and what I wanted to do without business obligation – in fact I had done this before – for two or three months at a time. I even wrote a blog about it and mentioned it in my book. It is amazing the benefit you get by looking at your business rather than working in it all the time.

Something went wrong when I returned to action in Autumn 2011 – I checked my accounts and recognised that my cash-flow needed a boost – I was still okay because my property portfolio means that I don’t have to work, sadly my personality and brain cells do need to do something. And there is a cost to doing business.

So I know that in order to keep my head busy I need to earn £1,000 per month so I can attend events, drive, use the phone and generally network. Somehow my focus shifted and my “intention” unconsciously became focused on the money instead of helping others.

I started to see people as an income stream rather than a human – I filed information about people in my brain according to the product or service I could sell them – yuck!

Luckily I noticed what I was doing. Why should this matter? Because I believe it changes the way you speak to people and how you listen to them – it acts as a filter. People around you will see that you are coming from a position of sales or money rather than from a position of help and support.

As soon as I reminded myself why I “work” – that it is to keep my mind happy and healthy and to help people I meet get more clarity about things, whether that’s thinking differently about money, or understanding something in their own business – it doesn’t really matter too much as long as I have been able to help.

Then there are some people that want to spend more time with me – because they recognise that I can help them get even more clarity around their business models and business goals. When that happens I am happy to help but then I charge for that additional time at a fair rate.

The change in emphasis has been incredible, and the volume of business flowing to me, because I allow people to decide if they want to work with me rather than forcing the issue, is amazing.

How do people see you – helpful or pushy, supportive or salesy?

You do still need to clearly articulate how people can work with you so that when they are ready they know what to ask for – that’s what marketing materials are for – even some blogs. See what happens when you shift from chasing the money to helping people with a clear pathway to doing more business – it’s all about the systems baby:)